Anicius Manlius Severinus Boetheus (c. 480-524) was a Roman philosopher who translated Aristotle and, in so doing, helped spread Aristotelian logic through Europe. He was an important official with the Theodoric, the Gothic king, but after he fell out of favor he was imprisoned and later executed.

While in prison, he wrote what would become his most famous work, Consolation of Philosophy. Although a devout Christian, this book contains no reference to Christian doctrines. Apparently Boethius believed that both reason and faith were equally valid ways of explaining reality and, having chosen to express himself with reason, found no need to say anything through faith. According to Boethius, it is possible to use reason to achieve some measure of happiness and peace, even in the face of adversity and evil.

This work was probably the most widely read and translated work after the Bible for the next millennium, proving to be enormously influential in the medieval Christian community. It is said of him that because he did so much to transmit the learning of antiquity to the Middle Ages, he should be called "the last of the Romans, the frist of the scholastics."

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Reason and faith may both be equally valid ways of explaining reality, but unlike Boetheus I see others who may share this belief feeling a need to express themselves through faith in the face of adversity and evil.

How far modern man has fallen from Boetheus. Backwards towards the middle ages.

...
'Happy is that death which thrusts not itself upon men in their pleasant years, yet comes to them at the oft-repeated cry of their sorrow. Sad is it how death turns away from the unhappy with so deaf an ear, and will not close, cruel, the eyes that weep. Ill is it to trust to

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Fortune's fickle bounty, and while yet she smiled upon me, the hour of gloom had well-nigh overwhelmed my head. Now has the cloud put off its alluring face, wherefore without scruple my life drags out its wearying delays.
'Why, O my friends, did ye so often puff me up, telling me that I was fortunate? For he that is fallen low did never firmly stand.'

I do not believe in absolute fate. If Fate runs everything, what point is there to living?

We have Free Will and we have the ability to use it or not.

As for reason. Of course REASON does not require religion. Especially man made churches.

Reason IS. I do not need to even know a God Exists to reason.

However religion can be a helping tool depending on what you are working on.

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Boetheus' fate was in the context of being imprisoned for his beliefs. I remember the first time I was being detained (lasted months) and having a stoic acceptance to my fate. It made being a MP (took me out of training at the last minute) in training and being locked up easy if not nothing to struggle with.

I am always fascinated by what people mean when they say we...humans, have free will.

Boetheus' fate was in the context of being imprisoned for his beliefs. I remember the first time I was being detained (lasted months) and having a stoic acceptance to my fate. It made being a MP (took me out of training at the last minute) in training and being locked up easy if not nothing to struggle with.

I am always fascinated by what people mean when they say we...humans, have free will.

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Free will means no outside force dictates your life , as in fate. Obviously our choices are going to be dependent mostly on our circumstances. BUT we will always have choices.

You chose to be stoic under the circumstance presented to you. No outside force made that choice for you. Believe me one does not have to be such even in jail.

I want nothing more than to die. Yet I chose to take medication and see doctors that help me control that urge. I chose to mostly not act even when it was over powering to do so. I have a chemical imbalance of some kind that makes me just about permanently depressed. Have had it my whole life. Until 1994 I controlled it and accepted easily living and participating in life. I was a successful Marine GySgt ( something my Naval Doctor told me I should never have been able to do, according to her I should never have survived boot camp.)

I chose by free will to live or die. I chose to get up every morning and participate to a small extent in life. Religion helps me at times with my choices. Sometimes though it feeds my problems too. There is no puppet master pulling my strings.

My survival is partially dependent on my medications. But even that is by CHOICE. I do not have to take those medications. I do not have to go see my doctors every week.

Free will means no outside force dictates your life , as in fate. Obviously our choices are going to be dependent mostly on our circumstances. BUT we will always have choices.

You chose to be stoic under the circumstance presented to you. No outside force made that choice for you. Believe me one does not have to be such even in jail.

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the stoicism I spoke of comes from acceptance. Do not confuse that with weakness for it is my observation that the weak of will and mind and spirit often fight when acceptance is the better choice or is needed. This is because the weak cannot face things and lack critical thinking faculties. Survival is all, but at what cost? How we survive matters as much as how we live and choose to live.

I want nothing more than to die. Yet I chose to take medication and see doctors that help me control that urge. I chose to mostly not act even when it was over powering to do so.

I have a chemical imbalance of some kind that makes me just about permanently depressed. Have had it my whole life.

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It has also been my observation that people who say they want to die really just want the pain (whatever that is) to stop. It is like smokers or drunks or drug addicts. They mostly do not want to kick the habit as much as they want the bad things that come with the habit to go away. That is why I think the failure rate for quitting and recovery is so high.

When people truly want to quit, they quit, and having been around suicide both failed and successful, I can say people who want to die, die.

I wonder what you are experiencing. I am of the opinion that depression breeds more depression and that certain forms of talk therapy only feed the beast without addressing the overriding issue

Drugs? I did a few drug therapy regimens for mental/psychological reasons that came with an infection of the brain and another medical physical issue ---seizures of the temporal lobe. I viewed the regimens as a way to help me navigate the way back to 'normalcy' and that is what (some debate it) has happened.

I feel chemical reactions in the brain can sometimes be manipulated or suppressed without drugs. I used drugs hoping it would give me the extra power in controlling the reactions and withdrew slowly: drugs used/viewed as training wheels.

Until 1994 I controlled it and accepted easily living and participating in life. I was a successful Marine GySgt ( something my Naval Doctor told me I should never have been able to do, according to her I should never have survived boot camp.)

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See? I wonder if your naval doctor is just telling you what you want to hear? I wonder what other doctors would say?
I mean NO disrespect at all.

I did the whole psyche test routine, neurologists, etc. I even looked into OCD and manic depression at one time and got a few of the the docs I went to to admit they thought most of it was hooey. but...

lol

If you see a psychiatrist it is different than a therapist which is different than a psychologist, which is different than an analyst. (at least in these here parts)

almost forgot lcsw...but I have an intense alergic reaction to social workers of any kind.

I chose by free will to live or die. I chose to get up every morning and participate to a small extent in life. Religion helps me at times with my choices. Sometimes though it feeds my problems too. There is no puppet master pulling my strings.

My survival is partially dependent on my medications. But even that is by CHOICE. I do not have to take those medications. I do not have to go see my doctors every week.

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